Three Reading residents are accused of running a theft ring over a more than two-year period while they were employed at FedEx Ground facility in Bern Township.

The scheme resulted in a loss of more than $40,000 to a single FedEx commercial customer, investigators said. That customer, ecoATM, uses FedEx Ground to ship cellphones collected from its phone-recycling kiosks in Berks and elsewhere.

Bern police Detective Joshua O. Santos said the leaders of the theft ring recruited others who did not work for the company, including friends and relatives, to deposit stolen phones in the kiosks after their own accounts with the ecoATM were flagged.

Charged with organized retail theft and conspiracy were David V. McCoy, 32, of the 600 block of North Fifth Street; Jessina C. Soler, 23, of the 400 block of Robeson Street; and Tejahn A. Burdine, 23, of the 500 block of Schuylkill Avenue.

McCoy was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $80,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment June 28 before District Judge Brian K. Strand, Bern Township. Online court records indicate he hadn’t posted bail as of Wednesday.

Soler and Burdine were both free on $10,000 bail following arraignment Monday night and Tuesday night, respectively, before District Judge Gail M. Greth in Reading Central Court.

In addition to the conspiracy and organized retail theft charges, all three defendants face dozens of counts each of receiving stolen property.

Santos filed the charges June 24.

Ten other people who were not employed by FedEx have been charged in the scheme. Arrest warrants were issued for all the defendants.

One of those defendants, Zanida L. Devault, 23, of Reading, was also arraigned Monday night before Greth after turning herself in to face 148 counts of receiving stolen property.

Santos said only those defendants who were employed by FedEx were charged with organized retail theft and conspiracy because the scheme would not have been possible without their actions while employed at the facility.

The total number of receiving stolen property counts faced by each of the 13 defendants was determined by the number of stolen phones they sold to ecoATM for cash, Santos said.

Santos said Devault didn’t work for FedEx but received the most money from the scheme – slightly more than $10,000 – of all of the defendants. She told the detective in a May 30 interview, according to the criminal complaint, that she was going through hard times and needed money that the scheme generated.

Soler was responsible for 61 stolen phone transactions for which she received $5,300, according to the complaint.

Burdine conducted 50 transactions for which he was paid about $4,000.

Santos detailed the investigation as follows in the probable cause affidavit:

In February, he was alerted by FedEx Ground security that FedEx employees were involved in a theft organization. FedEx, which is not a victim of the scheme, was contacted by ecoATM after that company noticed a pattern of theft.

EcoATM buys used cellphones for refurbishing and resale. The company has more than 5,000 kiosks nationwide.

The kiosks, which are monitored live via surveillance camera, provide a customer instant cash for each phone that is deposited. A third-party contractor empties the kiosks and packages the used phones for shipment via FedEx Express.

FedEx Express uses the FedEx Ground facility along Route 183 near Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township to complete shipment.

FedEx Ground security started a review of surveillance footage after noticing a pattern of thefts of phones in transit. The phone would suspiciously reappear in the system after a duplicate payment was made.

Soler, McCoy and Burdine were seen in surveillance footage on Dec. 14 working together to steal a package from a FedEx truck. Soler collected the phones and had one of her fellow employees carry the items to a vehicle.

Two days later, McCoy conducted 13 transactions at an ecoATM in Reading, receiving cash payments totaling $467. One of the phones was identified as being stolen from a previous shipment.

Officials at ecoATM searched their records and provided data of transactions to Santos. Through data analysis, Santos found the defendants were responsible for $40,207 in duplicate payouts for the stolen phones.

The scheme started over two years ago, but the $40,000 figure only covers those phones stolen within the statute of limitations, since August 2022.

A glitch, since corrected, in the software used by ecoATM allowed repeated deposits of phones despite the serial number matching previous deposits.